This invention relates to the field of information management. The invention provides a system and method for creation and modification of slide kits. Such slide kits are used in presentations given for educational purposes, or presentations given for marketing of products or services, or other contexts. The invention also includes a system and method for editing of video content.
Slides are frequently used in the delivery of oral presentations, whether in academic environments, in business, or in other environments. The term “slide” originally referred to a translucent photographic film that would move (“slide”) into position in a projector, for viewing on a screen. Modern technology has largely replaced the old photographic slide by a computer-generated image that is projected onto a screen.
Modern “slides” are typically created by known software programs, such as PowerPoint (the term PowerPoint is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation, of Redmond, Wash.). The images created by these programs are still called “slides”, even though they are not photographic, and do not physically “slide” through anything.
In this specification, the term “slide” is used in its most general meaning, to include both conventional photographic slides, as well as computer-generated images. Indeed, in this specification, the term can refer to any display of information, whether the display is static or moving (such as a video), provided that that display can be handled as a unit, and placed in a series containing other similar or dissimilar units.
A set of slides (a “slide kit”) is typically created and edited by a plurality of persons located in geographically disparate places. The same is true for the creation and editing of a video. Examples of systems and methods which facilitate collaboration among persons in the creation and editing of slide kits are given in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/087,404, filed Mar. 23, 2005, and published as US 2006-0236246 A1, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,445, filed Jun. 6, 2006, and published as US 2006-0218004 A1. The disclosures of both of the above-cited applications are incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention comprises improvements over the systems and methods described in the above-cited applications.
The above-cited applications describe systems and methods which save time by reducing the number of redundant comments received from participants in the slide kit creation and editing process, by organizing such comments and requested changes, and by implementing a formal approval process while documenting all comments and changes made to the slides.
A primary component of the above-described systems is a display screen which shows the contents of a slide kit, one slide at a time, to reviewers, to give the reviewers the opportunity to comment on the slides. The comments can take the form of text, images, or other reference material. The present invention enables the collaborators to include multimedia content, such as audio and other content, during the editing process. The invention also provides a collaborative method for editing a video.